You Love Me-kun
You Love Me-kun (ﾕｰ・ﾗﾌﾞ・ﾐｰ君) is a gag manga by Fujio Akatsuka and Fujio Pro. It was a year-long serial that ran in the Monthly Heibon magazine from July 1965 to August 1966. Overview Santaro is a young man who's obsessed with cute girls and winning them over. He sets his sights on a girl named Chiyoko, and aims to be her boyfriend by driving away whatever competition he has. The series is an episodic love comedy, with the situations of Santaro and Chiyoko being played with depending on the plot. Eventually, a rival known as Mr. Kyouyou enters the picture as a rival for Santaro, shaking up the formula some. When looking back on the series for its first reprint in 1968, Akatsuka remarked that it was the only manga he had done exclusively for a teenage demographic. As he had spent all his youth on trying to become a manga-ka, he relied on his memories on the simplistic dreams that teenagers would have held in such times. Characters Santaro The protagonist, whose exact age is not stated though it may be figured he's in his later teenage years. He abides by his idea of sending one love letter a day, and wants to be the only guy for Chiyoko (or whatever other girl that may catch his interest). Love never leaves his head. Santaro's design is an evolution of the Mr. Ken character, though his hair is now inked in black. Chiyoko The cool, seemingly distant popular girl that is the subject of Santaro and other guys' affection. As time goes on, it is shown that she's actually a rather innocent, average type of teenage girl, though she is not opposed to pulling her own trickery to get out of situations (such as pretending to be pregnant with a watermelon up her dress, to ward off another guy). Nanako Santaro's younger sister, who strongly resembles Jajako-chan (if not simply being her under another different name and cheek decorations for a different role). She helps in sending the love letters and his schemes to win over Chiyoko. Early on in the series, Nanako is pursued by a young boy that tags along with her, but this character is phased out as the formula changes. Nanako and the nameless boy are also shown with other friends in the first frontispiece, but the other children never show up in the series and may have merely been for decoration. Mr. Kyouyou lit: "Mr. Culture" A pompous college student who lives in the neighborhood. He resembles a younger Iyami from Osomatsu-kun, and also loves Chiyoko which makes him the perfect rival for our protagonist. Serialization Because of the difference in reprint editions re-ordering several chapters, what follows below is an attempt to reconstruct the original intended order of the series: # Love Letter (ラブ・レター, July 1965) # Aim for a Younger Brother (弟をねらえ, August 1965) # Lovers Only (おしかけ恋人, September 1965) # Aim for Chiyoko (千代子をねらえ, October 1965) # The Cutie at the Greengrocer (八百屋のかわい子ちゃん, November 1965) # I'm Broke! (絶交だわさっ!, December 1965) # A Woman is Too Strong (女は強すぎる, January 1966) # One Love per Day (一日一ラブ, February 1966) # It's a Misunderstanding! (誤解だよっ!, March 1966) # Mr. Kyouyou (ミスター教養, April 1966) # Hiking!? '''(バイキング！？, May 1966) # '''The Awakening of Spring (春のめざめ, June 1966) # Tickle the Maternal Instincts (母性本能をくすぐれ, July 1966) # 'Bikini and Watermelon '(ビキニとスイカ, August 1966) Reprints * Mushi Pro: 1 volume (1968). Contains all chapters of "Jinx-kun", 3 chapters of "Junior High 1st Year Kosuke", the COM version of "Rakugaki", "Keiji and Goemon", and "The Monkey's Foolish Guardmen". * Futabasha: "Power Comics", 1 volume (1975). Contains all chapters of "Jinx-kun", "Keiji and Goemon", and "The Monkey's Foolish Guardmen". * Shogakukan: "Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works" DVD-ROM set (2002), digitized version of the Futabasha reprint. There is no current digital or physical reprint of the series, and the chapters between both editions are subject to being ordered much differently (eg: in the Mushi reprint, "A Woman is Too Strong" is the ending. In the Futabasha reprint, "Aim for Chiyoko" is the ending and several other chapters are out of order). References External Links * "You Love Me-kun" write-up at the Akatsuka Preservation Society (Japanese) Category:Gag works Category:1960s works Category:Manga Category:Works serialized in Heibon